Waiting
by Kittiko-Blues
Summary: Oneshot. During DMC. One sleepless night, Koleniko is paid a visit from his lover.


**I do not own Koleniko or any of the POTC characters. © to Disney. Lydia, however, belongs to me. (This story also has no connection to my other story, 'The Metaphor', where in it, I wrote that Koleniko had no specific lover. This is an entirely different story.)**

All through the night, lying on his back in his bunk in the _Flying Dutchman_'s hold, Koleniko kept turning over and flailing restlessly, unable to get to sleep. His mind was hardly at ease, his body not exactly ready to shut down for the night. He couldn't get her out of his mind's eye, nor could he extract the echo of her voice from his heart. It was impossible to relieve himself from the irritating pull in his sub-conscience that he could have still been with her had he not gone out to sea…he would still be with her if he hadn't been press-ganged, if he had made it back to her after the shipwreck. His eyes remained closed as he breathed deeply, trying to force himself to sleep.

Koleniko felt like he had betrayed her, promising to come back to her when he was given leave, only to never return to her again.

_"I was waiting for you..."_

His eyes shot open instantly, pupils dilated all the way in the intense dark. For a moment, the heavy and hoarse breathing of the sleeping crew around him was all that was entering his auditory nerve, and he began to wonder maybe he was just hearing things. It was _her _voice though, he knew it. It came at him clear as a whistle. _Ye need to sleep lad. Ye're lettin' yer lack o' rest get to ye. _Koleniko groaned and turned onto his belly. His eyes began to close again steadily, taking a deep breath and exhaling softly.

_"…but you never came back."_

In another instant, Koleniko's eyes widened again, and he remained motionless. This time, it didn't feel like his tired mind was playing tricks on him. And he couldn't hear the crew slumbering anymore; it was his nervous heart flitting frenetically in his chest he was hearing. He slowly propped himself up on his elbows and looked around, seeing nothing but the crew in their various sleeping positions. "Damn mind," he muttered quietly, flipping to his back carefully and folding his hands across his abdomen. "Hell o' a night I'm havin'." He sighed lightly and closed his eyelids once more.

Koleniko thought he had just about fallen asleep, when he heard her voice again.

_"Why didn't you come back?"_

"Who's speakin' to me?" Koleniko mumbled snippily as his spines flared out, having about enough of putting up with sleep deprivation-related hallucinations. He sat up in his bunk rather quickly and froze almost instantly upon doing so. "Lydia…" he whispered through the plugged hole of his throat.

The surreal image of her body stood fluorescently in front of his non-believing eyes. Lydia's hair hanged down by her waist, its dark-brown color shimmering in the glow her body outline was bathed in. Liquid emotion rimmed around her eyelids and formed an enamel over her bright-blue irises, and a ring of purple formed a half-circle under each eye. Her once curvy and slender frame now looked pallid and frail, also emaciated. She was an apparition of her former self, staring hopelessly at her former beloved. Koleniko was stunned speechless at this sad creature standing before him in her dirty-white one piece gown, its hem worn and frayed. She said again in her ethereal voice, _"Why didn't you come back?"_

Koleniko sat up all the way in his bunk, gaping in pure horror. Seeing Lydia like this was more terrifying that inflicting Jones's wrath upon himself. "I…I'm sorry I didn't. Can't ye see where I've ended up now, Lydia? It should be obvious as to why I didn't come back."

_"You promised you would."_

"I know I did, but things happened Lydia, things that I couldn't change."

_"But you loved me…how could you leave behind the one you love most?"_

Koleniko sighed brokenly, lowering his head and his eyes. "I didn't mean to."

_"I can never see you again now. You just had to go out to sea again, didn't you? You promised me you would never leave, that this was the last time. And you left me alone when you went. You never came back. You left me broken-hearted," _Lydia said with an eerie calm to her voice.

"Ye think my heart ain't broken frem what I've done?" Koleniko remarked snappishly. "I said I was sorry Lydia. I wish I could make it so I ne'er left ye, but I can't…" His shoulders slumped and collapsed on him.

One of Lydia's hands moved slowly from her side, going under his chin and lifting it up so his eyes met hers. _"I know you can't. I just wish I had known a way to keep you from leaving." _

"Lydia, ye know ye can't control everythin'," Koleniko said softly.

A crystalline teardrop rolled down her cheek, hitting the floor. _"I want to be with you again. I'm hurting so much that I can't…"_

Koleniko could feel his own tears coming on. "I want to be wi' ye too luv, but I'm afraid that won't be fer a very long time."

Lydia's thin, colorless lips formed something of a sad grin. _"Only after your time here has expired I will see you, I know. But at least when the good Lord brings us back together,, we will never be parted from each other again." _She gently stroked her chilly fingers down his jaw line. _"I love you Koleniko."_

The coxswain's eyes closed as he felt her touch. He leaned slightly into her palm, feeling his heart hammer mercilessly inside him. His hand reached up to cover hers. "I love ye too Lydia."

---

"Oi, mate. Stop talkin' to yerself! Ye'll wake the rest o' us exhausted dogs up," came Clanker's cracked whisper from somewhere in the room.

Koleniko opened his eyes, startled. She was gone. He looked around, seeing the sleeping men in the dark of the hold. His hand was still on his face. "Sorry mate." He elongated himself on his bunk and lay on his back. _Was it just a dream? Was she really 'ere?_

Lydia was gone. She was right: he would never see her again until the day he entered the Lord's Kingdom. Koleniko sighed wretchedly, folding his hands once again over his belly. As he once again tried to fall asleep, her image glued itself to his mind's eye. The day would come when they could be happy again, and he wouldn't have to keep anymore false promises to her. _I promise I'll be wi' ye ferever. _

His eyelids closed gradually, and the dull thumping of his heart was the last thing he heard as he went into slumber.

_I promise…_

POTC © to Disney


End file.
